Reel Deal: Up, up and do away with

Apparently the $50 to $60 million budget for writer/director Juan Diego Solanas' “Upside Down” (2012) was spent on filling the green screen with (albeit hypnotic) CGI backdrops because little else in this film compels. That's a pity since the innovative alien setting ends up being squandered along with the producer's money. A result of this lopsided investment is that virtually any montage of clips from the movie makes a quite enticing trailer and that drew us in.

”Upside Down” waxes poetic on a duality of civilizations that exist on planets that neighbor each other by only a few hundred feet. Down below is a poverty stricken wasteland where rubble and dead bodies line the streets, border patrol agents are trigger happy and oil rains down on commuters from unrepaired industrial accidents. Up above is an inverted, opulent world with its own gravity that pulls in the opposite direction.

The sky in most outdoor scenes is filled with a bird's eye view of either cloudy, forest-covered mountain ranges, sparkling oceans or a bustling metropolis. This crisp, sweeping panorama gives the audience a lot of beauty to take in, even if the lens flare effect is a bit overused. Most of the film is from the perspective of the poorer planet, an area the director seems more comfortable with (an ironic side note: the sky from the richer planet would actually be filled with visions of destitution).

Indoors Solanas went with a disorienting mirrorlike parallelism reminiscent of some M.C. Escher images. One of the best scenes is of the Cafe Dos Mundos where couples from both worlds tango on dual floor/ceiling dance floors. A chandelier sprouts from the floor as dancers strut and twirl on an elaborately frescoed ceiling although it is never explained who these affluent lower worlders are.

We knew we were in for trouble when the main character Adam, played by Jim Sturgess, begins a five-minute narration explaining the science of this unique world system in the opening scene. In a nutshell, all matter is bound to the gravity of the world from which it comes, that same matter becomes inverse matter on the opposing planet and after a certain (varying) time period inverse matter bursts into flames from contact with otherworldly matter.

This bookish monologue would be more palatable if Sturgess wasn't delivering his lines so cloyingly sweet throughout the film. “The universe is so full of wonders,” he pines with the opening sentence.

If only every voice over was done by Morgan Freeman.

After overtly setting up the physical rules viewers are rushed through the setup of the love story between Adam and Eden, played by Kirsten Dunst. The audience is supposed to accept that a chance encounter between two children from opposing worlds provides enough of a basis for them to be soul mates without any accompanying progression of scenes to make this believable. It's hard to understand why they love each other.

Dunst and Sturgess have zero chemistry from the moment they meet. The meager scenes that try to develop their relationship devolve into discombobulated chatter. Of course, Eden's amnesia might have something to do with this, but the end result is that Dunst comes across as vague, flat and boring whereas Sturgess' incessant puppy dog charm is almost embarrassingly obsessive. His tousled hair, shy smile and coy eyed cooing don't play well onscreen.

With the exception of James Kidnie, who plays the office manager at the clichéd evil corporation Transworld, we found the supporting cast just as unpersuasive. Even the reliable British actor Timothy Spall, who plays Adam's growly, ceiling-dwelling coworker Bob Boruchowitz, turns in an affable performance but is used as such a plot expedient that he comes across as implausible. This film is riddled with these types of story shortcuts and premise inconsistencies.

Therein lies the only problem with this movie on a scale with the stale romance. Namely, Solanas seemingly fails to understand the basic rules of the world he created. Nothing follows from what's gone on before, and it is maddening.

Here are just some of the head-scratching questions that befuddled us. Why is the perilous, highly illegal transit between planets surprisingly easy? Why aren't there all sorts of material falling between worlds given the prevalence of smuggling inverse matter? How is there night and day on planets that couldn't possibly rotate since they are connected by the towerlike office building of Transworld? Given the tight security how does Adam stockpile inverse matter? How can Adam visit the other world and not get an intense blood rush to the head? Where does he find the strength to don an iron suit effortlessly? Why are the highest mountain peaks not cold? And, of course, the elephant in the room: Why doesn't Adam, who is presumably made of matter, burst into flames when visiting the upper world?

It even tries to rush a tidy bow-tie conclusion but can't cover up the multitude of loose ribbon ends. Transitioning from despair to planetary salvation in about 10 minutes, we are at least comforted to know that Adam and Eden's love “would forever alter the course of history” since the narrator is reinserted to tell us just that. All this is fine if you want to get together with your friends and cynically rip apart the foibles of “Upside Down” à la “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (1988-1999) otherwise it's unfortunate since this had the potential to be a classic sci-fi flick.

The exciting part about science fiction is escaping into imaginary worlds. These worlds do not need to be completely plausible but explanations of the deviations from normal should be consistently maintained for the duration of the story. Here the suspension of disbelief required is just too much.

The Reel Deal Rating System: $ - Wait until it is on television. $$ - Worth renting but only after it hits the older movie racks.. $$$ - Worth renting as a new release.. $$$$ - Worth going to the theater but only at the matinee price. $$$$$ - Worth going to opening night